US appeals court to hear ‘torture’ confession case

Pentagon prosecutors want a federal appeals court to reinstate a young Guantanamo detainee’s confession after a military judge ruled the man had been tortured and threw it out.

Military prosecutors will ask the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday to allow them to use Mohammed Jawad’s confession against him during his trial by a military commission.

Jawad is accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two American soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul in 2002, when he was 16 or 17. Jawad is being held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one of the youngest detainees there.

He was supposed to face trial early this month, the last military commission trial before President George W Bush leaves office.